1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a system and method for presenting and teaching a new language. In particular, this invention relates to the presentation of two languages with equal emphasis.
2. Background of the Invention
It is well known that children are able to learn multiple languages without effort. It is also known that as a person grows older and leaves childhood, it becomes progressively more difficult to gain fluency in a new language. However, most methods for teaching a new language differentiate between the two languages wherein prior knowledge of a first language is used to teach the second language. These methods typically cannot be used in the reverse circumstance when a speaker has prior knowledge in the second language but wishes instruction in the first language. This unnecessarily reduces the flexibility of a teaching method. Moreover, the categorization of a “primary language”, “secondary language” or “foreign language”, may not be preferred by some speakers, particularly parents imparting values to their children.
Additionally, many methods for teaching a new language do not reinforce the spoken word with the written word in a consistent manner and do not reinforce the correspondence of the spoken word and the written word in the original language in a consistent manner.
For instance, the original “Baby Einstein” video contained songs and rhymes in various languages in addition to music and sound effect for children up to 36 months of age. However, there is no attempt to make a written or graphical visual reference to a word, song or rhyme in any language. Instead, it uses toys and other images to keep a child's visual attention while the audio plays the intended music, songs or rhyme. The book, “Baby Einstein Nursery”, was not a direct companion to the video and would typically take a sentence of a first language and translate it into several “foreign” languages. A later version of “Baby Einstein”. A later DVD version with a video supplemental section tried to connect some of the images of the video with an education flashcard that, as in the video and book, could be seen in one of several “foreign” languages. However, an immersive technique was used and the video did not use the same visual style as the book. Additionally, there was no consistency of the presentation format with that of the video or book to reinforce any language lessons learned.
Brainy Baby, formerly known as Small Fry Production created a number of videos for children, including “Bilingual Baby” (later renamed “Brainy Baby Spanish”) which attempts to teach a child a language. The immersive teaching technique mainly comprises live action video footage, with a few graphic sections, in which typically three words are presented in an order later to be used in a sentence. This is an immersive technique with only the spoken immersive language which is indicated on the tape (Spanish, German, Italian, etc.). The non-English word is presented, then the English translation is removed, leaving only the word to be learned visually in the screen. At all times, these words are spoken only in the respective immersive language while the audio in the background is usually classical.
The “Just Look 'n Learn Spanish Picture Dictionary” includes words in both Spanish and English, with no presentation beyond the written page.
The “Fun with Languages” presents language in a bilingual format with equal emphasis to the target language and English through various puppets. The format of the video and the coloring book is not consistent. It does not use a flashcard approach, but rather concentrates on the words alone and their relationship with the colors.
Other examples of prior art language instruction methods or devices include books such as “Let's Play—Vamos a Jugar” from “Chubby/Little Simon”, “Let's Learn Spanish Dictionary” from “Passport Books”, “My First Hundred Words in Spanish” from “Paragon Publishing” or other books from such publishers as “Little/Brown Co.”; flashcard systems, such as those produced by “Penton Overseas, Inc.”; television programs such as “Miffy” from “Big Tent Entertainment” (shown in Europe) or “Dora the Explorer”.
Some other examples of prior art are U.S. Pat. No. 6,565,358 entitled “Language Teaching System” issued on May 20, 2003 to Thomas; U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,876 entitled “Interactive Learning of a Foreign Language” issued on Aug. 20, 2002 to Chen; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,510 entitled “Method for Learning a Foreign Language” issued on Jun. 25, 2002 to Chen.